René S. Roupinian is of counsel to Outten & Golden LLP and Co-Chair of its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act Practice Group. Since 2002, she has devoted 100% of her practice to the litigation of WARN cases, representing tens of thousands of employees who were terminated without sufficient notice in violation of federal and state WARN laws. A majority of the cases Ms. Roupinian litigates are initiated as class actions and frequently filed in bankruptcy court as adversary proceedings. Ms. Roupinian has been quoted on WARN law rights and the firm’s cases cited in major media publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, American Lawyer, Associated Press, USA Today, Forbes and Newsday. In May 2008, Ms. Roupinian submitted testimony at the invitation of Senator Edward Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee of the U.S. Senate upon the occasion of the WARN Act’s 20th Anniversary. Her
testimony focused on the litigator’s perspective of the need for WARN reform. Ms. Roupinian has written on WARN for the New York Employee Advocate and recently presented on WARN for the American Bar Association—Economy in Peril (Part 1): The Legal Landscape for Addressing Reductions in Force. She received her B.A. in 1989 from the University of Michigan and her J.D. in 1994 from Michigan State University College of Law. Prior to 2002, Ms. Roupinian was a partner in a Detroit firm where she concentrated her practice on employment and class action litigation.